Smoke settles in — but for how long?

For more than three hours Wednesday morning, simply standing outside and breathing was dangerous.

And it didn’t matter whether you had asthma or whether you were old or sick. Even Stockton’s youngest and healthiest were at risk.

The unusually massive spike in air pollution happened after winds shifted late Tuesday and began drawing smoke from the Napa and Sonoma fires into the northern San Joaquin Valley.

The winds were strong enough to bring the smoke here, but not strong enough to blow it out — at least, not until lunchtime when conditions dramatically improved.

Those northerly winds were expected to decrease a little overnight, however, potentially setting up another eerily orange and unhealthy morning today.

“What I’ve been focusing on telling people is that this just reinforces the importance of checking (air quality) hourly and making decisions based on that,” said Tammy Evans, director of San Joaquin County’s Public Health Services. “It could get better, or it could get worse. We’ve never had wildfires like this, and they’re all around us.”

Between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Tuesday, the concentration of tiny smoke particles in the atmosphere nearly tripled at one monitoring station on Hazelton Avenue in south Stockton.

That was enough to propel the city into the most severe of five pollution categories, one in which public health warnings extend to the entire population rather than being limited to those who are more vulnerable because of their health or their age. Similar conditions were seen in Manteca and Tracy.

Such a sudden spike is rare here, though it sometimes occurs on the evening of the Fourth of July when smoke from fireworks cloud the sky.

At one point Tuesday, visibility fell to less than two miles at the Stockton Metropolitan Airport. At Lincoln High School, one of relatively few schools in session this week, officials decided to move P.E. classes indoors and hold football practice in a gymnasium.

“The good news for us was that we didn’t have any athletic events — it was just practices,” Principal Terry Asplund said.

Stockton wasn't alone, obviously. Officials to the west warned of “unprecedented levels of air pollution throughout the Bay Area.” One University of California, Davis expert told the Reno Gazette-Journal that the fires probably have produced about 10,000 tons of tiny particulate matter, roughly equivalent to a year’s worth of exhaust from 35 million vehicles.

The tiny particles from smoke, about 3 percent the width of a human hair, embed themselves in your lung tissue and can enter the bloodstream, causing or worsening respiratory problems and heart disease. The particles have been tied to thousands of premature deaths across the state each year.

Just because it’s been smoky doesn’t mean it’s always unsafe to be outside. Conditions change quickly. To keep track on an hourly basis, visit valleyair.org and click on the “RAAN” link. Select your city and click on “Fine Particulate Matter” for hourly readings and advice.

But trust your own instincts, as well, said Anthony Presto, a spokesman for the air district.

“What we always are telling the public if you can smell smoke or see it in your immediate vicinity, to treat that as unhealthy.” Presto said.

Practically drenched in the mist-like smoke, some Stockton residents took to social media on Tuesday with some saying that their asthma was intensifying or that they felt light-headed.

Like many others, 54-year-old Marleana Britton was caught off guard. She suffers from asthma and leaves her windows open at night to keep her apartment fresh. Problem is, her kitchen window faces the northwest.

When Britton woke up Wednesday and walked into her kitchen, she immediately smelled the acrid smoke.

“I said, ‘Oh, no,’” she recalled. “I couldn’t breathe.”

She slammed the window shut and retreated to her bedroom. Only later, when some of the smoke had blown away, did she emerge from her bedroom and eventually went to Louis Park.

To Stockton pub owner Tony Mannor, the bad air was more than a nuisance or health risk. It was a reminder of the staggering devastation in the wine country.

“Stockton air is full of the remains of homes, jobs, memories and even lives,” he wrote on Facebook. “With every scratchy breath you take today — use it to tell the people in your life that you love them.”

Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or abreitler@recordnet. Follow him at recordnet.com/breitlerblog and on Twitter @alexbreitler.

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